Sheet the bill back to Mallard. Let him pay it off at $500 a week. I am sure he can afford it. It wouldn't be a hardship on his salary.
It would take the wind out of the sails of the Nats, narrative that,' Labour are irresponsible tax and spend wastrels.'
It would make a good example, that there will be no impunity for any future MP who might be tempted to copy Mallard's impulsive hotheaded track record.
That there will be consequences for reckless hotheaded behaviour, might give pause for thought before acting impulsively.
Put the generator onboard and call it a hybrid electric vehicle?
Ford Motor Co is offering a new feature for its 2022 F-150 Lighting and Hybrid trucks called "Power Pro Onboard", which is a 240-volt on board generator that can charge Ford and other brands of electric vehicle, such as the Mach-E, or be used to power a home in the event of a power failure
This too is going to be funny, it kind of reminds of Baghdad after the US invaded as detailed by a young women on this blog here. http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
They kind of had like 2 – 4 hours electricity a day.
From below, 38,000 members of Oathkeepers are named including hundreds of current serving and past Police and US military: current Sherriffs, and Chiefs of Police, and serving Army.
From above, 8 formers US Secretaries of Defence and five former Chairs of the Joint Chiefs of the US military set out in a joint letter the principles of civilian control and the peaceful handover of power in their democracy.
Football club Chelsea sacked coach Thomas Tuchelon on Wednesday night six games into the season. Hired in January 2021, Tuchelhad success. He took his team to the FA Cup final and EFL Cup final last season. Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea in that first season as well as claiming two minor trophies.
His team lost to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League this week.
American owner Todd Boehly seemingly can't tolerate being a loser. A new ownership group spent around NZ$514 to be winners.
Funny that you can splash all the money in the world around but human foibles and performance don't necessarily reach a zenith just on money. And does someone spending NZ$514 million and playing a team which has spent $515 million necessarily win?
I look forward to seeing results with Chelsea not winning. That dimension certainly makes sport entertaining.
Of course the lack of tolerance for losing and the lack of understanding and tolerance of the nature of human performance in sport is germane to our sports debate.
In April, the ECHR in the UK, did what many governments, legislators and policy makers have resisted doing and published guidelines regarding the law and the provision of single sex spaces.
Nineteen LGBT+ groups, including Stonewall, have also called on the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions to strip the EHRC of its A-rating as a human rights body. – Vice (link below)
The most relevant points are:
The Equality Act allows for the provision of separate or single sex services in certain circumstances under ‘exceptions’ relating to sex.
To establish a separate or single-sex service, you must show that you meet at least one of a number of statutory conditions (set out in this section of the guide) and that limiting the service on the basis of sex is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. For example, a legitimate aim could be for reasons of privacy, decency, to prevent trauma or to ensure health and safety. You must then be able to show that your action is a proportionate way of achieving that aim.
A protest against this – commended by allies such as Billy Bragg and applauded as 'art' by others, took place outside the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last Friday afternoon.
Please take time to read the protestors concerns and intentions, before viewing the photos before telling me this is not a display of a combination of sexual paraphilias.
Well it is a sign of alpha w-manliness to mark ones territory and let everyone know that a w-man was here. , and I as otherother / person /people/ folx/ non male/ non penis haver totally would have no issues with this 'w-man' pissing all over the toilets, changing rooms, into the pool, and elsewhere, after all that is what 'w-man' do. Right, pissing on the rights of people not them.
In saying that someone should advise this w-man to his water intake, cause that piss is brown and that can't healthy.
I don't think this is an appropriate sentence for the crimes committed, despite the slur on government.
Can we just acknowledge that certain people have certain patterns of mendacious behaviour, and then discuss the issue of why we agree/disagree with the sentence?
For me, it is the knowledge of the impact of sexual assault on victims, that often isolates them at home for much longer than nine months, that provides dissatisfaction with nine months home detention. Incarceration that doesn't provide a solid attempt to change behaviour is also not the full answer.
Does NZ have any successful programmes running in our Justice and prison systems at the moment?
5 – 10 percent of all humans male – or female (sex based not gender based) are capable of horrendous crimes against other people. They rape, they kill, they torture, and they cause mayhem for others.
95 – 90% of all humans male or female (sex based not gender based) to not cause any harm to anyone but have a good chance of being made a victim by the minority.
Someone who at 16 years old has raped and assaulted 5 young girls (15 years old and girls as in human female child – sex based) should not be given home d. But should be sent to a. prison or b. a mental clinic until they are no longer a risk to society and have paid their debt to those that were given a life time sentence of living with the after math of having been raped.
But feel free to run around pretending/insinuating/stating that ALL men are rapists that should be chemically castrated or surgically castrated should they be found guilty of raping 4 girls aged 15 and assaulting another girl. Heck why don’t you write a nice letter to the nice people who set sentencing and outline your proposal to them. See how that would work out for you and report back to us.
As well as Malay and English. Three main languages there, much of the signage is in Malay, and most of the place names. It is after all a small island at the bottom of the Malaysian peninsula, and only a 1/2 hour drive across the causeway. 🙂
Had a 2 year posting there and learnt a bit of Malay. On a holiday trip back from Penang Island we asked the overland taxi driver at Butterworth to take us to the Cameron Highlands, All was going good but there was much discussion between the taxi drivers who had heard our request and then some hurried transition of our luggage from the initial taxi to another. When I asked what was going on, it was revealed that the first taxi driver thought I had asked to go to Thailand!
It was a ride I shall never forget. It helped to keep my eyes closed for most of the journey. Fortunately Allah was looking out for us and we arrived shaken but not stirred.
The Cameron Highlands has some of the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen, and they were everywhere.
Looking more for the stats or data regarding the outcomes, rather than what you linked to.
Searching for statistics, it's easy to find stats on prevalence etc, but not so easy to find programmes with supporting data for perpetrators or victims.
There is no simple answer or we'd already be doing it.
IMHO a large proportion of offending stems from the intergenerational trauma of Maori displacement. And another component is the systemic fallout of predatory capitalism, trapping people in a cycle of deprivation. As well as other factors like mental health, literacy rates, addiction, abuse.
The Nordic model appears to be reasonably effective, but it relies upon a certain type of society, and political will.
Left-wing governments are more likely to mitigate the worst inequality and actually invest in people over profit… so long term, vote Left to reduce crime.
National likes to talk about getting tough but their plans (harsher sentences, more violent cops) are not backed by evidence, they are all just photo ops and tend to backfire.
You are correct in this. Just looking for some form of hard data in terms of how successful this approach is.
And don't be so quick to label people privileged just because they have no interaction with the justice system.
In my closest circle of female friends, none have interacted with the justice department, one was physically abused by both parents, two had their virginity stolen via sexual assault. One when they were a small child.
It'd be great is some of that compassion and understanding on the left remained for those who are not politically identified as vulnerable minorities, who are injured and suffer nonetheless.
Sorry for the implication, I am also privileged to avoid the Courts etc. In the light of the horrific stats against women and girls (and the difficulty of adolescence), little wonder that some are desperate to avoid predators by identifying into another gender.
Here's a meta study from Canada – evaluating the recidivism rate of adolescent sexual offenders who have completed rehabilitation programmes, with those who dropped out, and those who never participated.
Just aware there are many different programmes, and although they are often announced with great fanfare and promise, follow up information and data about attendees, costs, outcomes etc are hard to find.
There has been a follow up article with a response from the crown prosecutor, but even that is low on details regarding which programme the convicted rapist will be expected to attend (if indeed it is a specific sexual assault programme). Perhaps if those details were provided, and were able to be assessed as having a reasonable chance of success, people would be more accepting of the sentence.
Growing anger surrounding the sentence has prompted public protests – planned for this afternoon – in cities across the North Island.
This afternoon, Tauranga's Crown Solicitor Anna Pollett defended the sentence, explaining that a "rehabilitative approach is to protect the community in the long term from re-offending".
"In the circumstances of this prosecution, and in careful consideration of all the available material, the Crown did not oppose a sentence of home detention to balance the need for accountability and deterrence while also maximising the opportunity for intensive rehabilitation of the young person," Pollett said, in a rare statement from a Crown Solicitor.
The sentence, she also mentioned, included numerous conditions to ensure compliance and engagement with the rehabilitation programme.
This includes post-detention conditions and court-imposed judicial monitoring which Pollett said "adds a further layer of scrutiny to ensure compliance with the sentence".
Meyer, who has no criminal history, pleaded not guilty to all charges but was later found guilty.
A psychologist, who saw Meyer 30 times during the prosecution, found he had a medium risk of reoffending, and continues to minimize the effect of his crimes.
I guess that non male human beings that are biological uterus/cervix/fallopian tubes and ovary havers need to understand the value society and our law / order / justice complex has for them vs rapists. Like none. No value, what so ever.
A 16 year old raping 4 girls plus assaulting another one, should in fact be given a reward for his manliness and prowess. Anything else would just be too upsetting for the rapist. s/
That's not sarcasm, Sabine, that's unnecessarily triggering provocation, with no humorous or wry aspect whatsoever. Sarcasm should at least entertain, imo.
It's a wry analysis of the outcome for perpetrators and victims of sexual violence.
It's very difficult and distressing to get convictions.
Sentences of home detention agreed to by the crown prosecutor when as Sabine quotes above:
"A psychologist, who saw Meyer 30 times during the prosecution, found he had a medium risk of reoffending, and continues to minimize the effect of his crimes."
is not an indictment on the whole system, but may be indicative of a perspective that requires investigation. I think it does.
My answer is to the comment above on the Farrar tweet. It is not ment to be nice.
Farrar is Farrar and will do as Farrar did and has done since ever.
But to minimise the damage this young bloke did to the 5 girls in order to schtup a person with whom one disagrees one politically is despicable. Life long damage as i can assure you in no uncertain terms. My rapist is now dead and thanks god for that, and he raped me almost 50 years ago. And the damage is still there and it still hurts. Lifelong sentence for the victim and a nothing for the rapist. Now that is kindness.
And yes, where is the our government? the 'suicide' prevention government? the 'be kind' government when it comes to rape and sexual assault of girls/women? Oh they girls/women (sex based not gender based) are not marginalised and vulnerable enough? Are they even human?
What does it say about the so-called left that it can not ask where the justice is in this ruling. Justice for the girls. Justice for the community. Justice for the families of these girls?
And yes, that dude got exactly that what i wrote. A wee slap on the hand, after all they could not let that dude that has a medium risk of re-offending, and has shown no remorse be locked up for a few years. They are letting him go out again in a few month from his traumatising experience of home D and if he rapes again, oh well who could / would / should have known that, and did he not learn his lesson?
Susie Ferguson has made calling Luxon on his bullshit a national sport. Unfortunately within the key MSM interviewers she is the only one playing at the moment.
"Repeat the Lies Luxon" knows people remember the meme. True or Not!!
(I am glad to see Ad doing some decent posts on the Government and making suggestions. Well done Ad.)
Suzy is great. she cuts to the chase!! She could have said "Where are you getting those figures from? They are wrong"
Now we need to build in a strategy to "call out" distortions and outright Lies.
Plus the Election has started.!!!!!
I have increased my regular donation to Labour by a third. I suggest every supporter give a small amount regularly, as then Labour can plan their campaign.
Say if you will provide a billboard spot, if you can do other tasks. If you don't want Luxon as our next Leader, start the fighting fund and planning.
I have said the exact same thing some time ago. that the warehousing of our poor in motels is nothing more then a hiding of a problem and a huge transfer of government funds to private businesses that run run down motels.
For the weekly cost of housing a desperate family in one of these hovels the government could have literally rented a house of the free market and saved some money.
happy to see this now out in the open. I don't believe much will change, and those that recently have lost their properties rented or owned will themselves find that a run down motel unit is the best they will find for a long long time to come. But then the government pays what ever is asked, don't ask questions, just carry on. Let's keep moving. To where? Who cares.
Sabine the problem is old, in my lifetime I have seen building on the current scale once!! That was in the 70s. The number of houses is not enough, but the changes made mean apartment blocks are able to be built in all centers near transport. The solution is not magic, but did need central government change as Rotorua had 1500 consents over years!! They were mainly top end houses, not social houses.
Your suggestion of build to rent subsidised Government housing is practised in Australian States. Yes I agree that would help, but the government could not join an overheated market and make it worse. Now prices have begun to stabilise they have a chance to buy into a falling market to provide homes from failed airb&b landlords.
I guess we should just vote for the guy that will magically make all these problems disappear. By selling off state housing and ignoring all the people sleeping rough and celebrating a rock star economy and hoping the bottom feeders will just go away.
Or, we could acknowledge that there is a housing shortage and at the same time an unprecedented government response in facilitating 10,000+ new state houses in the last 5 years.
Yes. one house – and these are a tiny fraction bigger then a tiny house has now found someone to live in.
the rest are still empty.
All three houses are up the road from us. The property was knocked down three years ago, stood empty for a bout a year and half and took a year and a half to be build. With that speed in the year 2300 we will have housed all the Motel Citizens of NZ. Drip Drip Drip some water on a hot stone.
Never mind the future climate refugees such as those that have lost their properties in the recent floods up and down the country.
If you want to celebrate these three tiny houses on one section with three carparks and a rug of 'grass' behind the shed (they are about double garage sized houses) then go ahead and consider it success.
Again, i live not far from this success and i know how well they are build (lol) and how big they are – two tiny bedrooms, toilet/shower and a kitchen-living, and these houses will be rented to people with kids.
The only grace these houses have is that schools are in walking distance and hopefully some of the reserve that the Council wants to sell to private developpers for 'low income housing' will be preserved for the future poor to have a bit of an outdoor space, and the next supermarket is about 3 kms walking distance form these properties, if one does not have enough money for a bus. Town is about an hours walk away.
We initially thought that hese properties were for hte retired, and i would actully consider them perfect for that group of people. However pushing 3 – 5 people into a barely 45 sqm 'house' *3 i.e. 12 – 15 people plus a few cars on a section that used to have 1 Kainga Ora house on it will bring its own problems.
I understand the desperation. I watched Auckland during the N years, and now i get to watch Rotorua during the L years, and you know what, it is hard very hard to find a difference.
For what its worth, the whole of downtown Rotorua could be knocked down and rebuild. ITs either abandoned, or not earthquake save, empty shops everywhere. Now that would be something. Re-design the town centre to be pedestrian / cyclist friendly, ground floor shops and above those three floors of apartments. You would not need to re-develop, utilities would already be there, water/sewerage etc all at hand, and you would revive your town centre.
The country needs to re-think housing as a whole. Cost of build, rents, sizes 1 bdrm / studio to 5 bedrm, cheap monthly rents, next to shops, schools, medical centres etc etc etc.
That is not what we are doing. In this case, we build three very small houses on one section to house up to 15+ people in.
In fact it would have been better to build these properties up two stories. And i can see these houses be demolished in a few years to do exactly that.
Are you getting these talking points from talkback radio? I was talking to a mate a couple of days ago who was saying similar stuff about Rotovegas and asking "where is Jacinda?!!11!!"
She's overseas at the moment, so I guess it is time for the Nat's mouthpieces to moan that she isn't visiting their pet projects.
Aesop said that a man is known by the company he keeps.
Now we all know where, and with whom, he stands.
"The meeting was hosted by Unify NZ, a local group that is aligned to a number of anti-mandate/anti-vax groups such as Voices for Freedom and Convoy 2022. The audience, as demonstrated during question time, was a mix of diehard NZ First supporters and right-wing conspiracy theorists."
What is it about free school lunches that triggers right wingers so badly? The NZ Herald has revived its attacks on the school lunch programme. Is it the thought of some little brown kids getting a meal and maybe feeling happy and keen to learn – rather than knowing their place and pulling themselves up by their non-existent bootstraps? Is it the thought of working class parents saving maybe $25 a week per child to spend on other necessities? God knows – but it is a peculiarly intense example of their vileness.
It's not the first time NZ has had a school lunch programme. When I was a kid – admittedly a long time ago – our Mums used to take it in turns to 'do' the school lunches for those kids who regularly came to school with no lunch. We're talking about parents on very low wages who couldn’t afford them. No big deal. It was what you did back in the day. I presume each school had an allocation of money to keep the programme going.
He was second speaker at the Kelston Boys debating team back in the day, and it was always fun to go against the Kelston Girls team.
So Willie was pretty buff from all that First 15 Rugby gym training, and the topic was "That some things are best left to men". Good ground for a boys against the girls afternoon fun contest in the early 1980s.
You can get the tenor of the school by noting that Graham Henry was both Principal and Auckland Rugby Coach at the same time.
We oiled Willie up in coconut oil and he only wore a lavalava for that debate, so he could deliver Second Speaker with a bit of panache. He made his pecs talk to each other.
Sure went down well at the Kelston Girls auditorium.
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Renters and realtors are upset with a government decision to scrap a bill meant to regulate property managers over concerns about unethical and unlawful behaviours. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 2 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
Mallard leaves us with yet another unnecessary legal bill.
Mallard's legal bill revealed: Cost to taxpayers of trespassing Peters from Parliament (msn.com)
It's very easy to spend money when it is not yours and you have no responsibility for it.
It was certainly a dum move by Mallard. But, one also has to be utterly disgusted at the criminal costs of legal advice.
Sheet the bill back to Mallard. Let him pay it off at $500 a week. I am sure he can afford it. It wouldn't be a hardship on his salary.
It would take the wind out of the sails of the Nats, narrative that,' Labour are irresponsible tax and spend wastrels.'
It would make a good example, that there will be no impunity for any future MP who might be tempted to copy Mallard's impulsive hotheaded track record.
That there will be consequences for reckless hotheaded behaviour, might give pause for thought before acting impulsively.
Zero chance. No Speaker is ever going to set the precedent that the MP is personally liable for actions taken in the role of Speaker.
At least this one is only $23.5k compared with accusing someone falsely of rape and costing $330k!
Sacremento City. Hotter than 46 C ? Fark that is intense. Its all gathering dangerous momentum.
nek minute
https://twitter.com/hugh_mankind/status/1567257731765080070
we need better solutions to the issues facing us.
Put the generator onboard and call it a hybrid electric vehicle?
Ford Motor Co is offering a new feature for its 2022 F-150 Lighting and Hybrid trucks called "Power Pro Onboard", which is a 240-volt on board generator that can charge Ford and other brands of electric vehicle, such as the Mach-E, or be used to power a home in the event of a power failure
http://www.futurecar.com/article-5080-1.html
This too is going to be funny, it kind of reminds of Baghdad after the US invaded as detailed by a young women on this blog here. http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
They kind of had like 2 – 4 hours electricity a day.
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1567488848116043781
"…“We haven’t lost anything and we won’t lose anything,” said Putin, when asked about the cost of the invasion…"
Thus we hear the eternal and genuine contempt of fascist dictatorships to the value of human life.
Imagine hearing that if you are the mother, father, sibling or wife of one of Russia's dead. 50,000 nothings to Putin.
https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1567486326580150273
From below, 38,000 members of Oathkeepers are named including hundreds of current serving and past Police and US military: current Sherriffs, and Chiefs of Police, and serving Army.
Report finds alleged link between Oath Keepers, public officials (msnbc.com)
From above, 8 formers US Secretaries of Defence and five former Chairs of the Joint Chiefs of the US military set out in a joint letter the principles of civilian control and the peaceful handover of power in their democracy.
To Support and Defend: Principles of Civilian Control and Best Practices of Civil-Military Relations – War on the Rocks
This is far, far deeper than Trump's insurrection though it is certainly that.
This is instability across military and civil society that has rocked the US government institutions to their very core.
Trump has permanently degraded America, but the Deep State is also abetting him.
Hipkins spinning like a top!
Why Hipkins owes a simple apology for claiming women used 'false' info to cross Northland border – Bridge (msn.com)
The world of professional sport:
Football club Chelsea sacked coach Thomas Tuchelon on Wednesday night six games into the season. Hired in January 2021, Tuchelhad success. He took his team to the FA Cup final and EFL Cup final last season. Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea in that first season as well as claiming two minor trophies.
His team lost to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League this week.
American owner Todd Boehly seemingly can't tolerate being a loser. A new ownership group spent around NZ$514 to be winners.
Funny that you can splash all the money in the world around but human foibles and performance don't necessarily reach a zenith just on money. And does someone spending NZ$514 million and playing a team which has spent $515 million necessarily win?
I look forward to seeing results with Chelsea not winning. That dimension certainly makes sport entertaining.
Of course the lack of tolerance for losing and the lack of understanding and tolerance of the nature of human performance in sport is germane to our sports debate.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/premier-league-chelsea-stun-football-world-after-new-owners-axe-thomas-tuchel/E2CUL2KKFX2DYKTI6VEK7PNOYI/
Couldn’t happen to a better club.
COYS
He had a big blow up with Conte post match the other week earning himself a red card. Perhaps the pressure is too much?
Luxon really has no shame.
From RNZ
“How many students are wagging school?
Earlier this week National Party leader Christopher Luxon told Morning Report 100,000 children were chronically truant.
This is incorrect.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/474365/figures-reveal-how-many-students-are-wagging-school
Just manipulated the numbers. Wonder if he did the same running Air NZ.
In April, the ECHR in the UK, did what many governments, legislators and policy makers have resisted doing and published guidelines regarding the law and the provision of single sex spaces.
The most relevant points are:
A protest against this – commended by allies such as Billy Bragg and applauded as 'art' by others, took place outside the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last Friday afternoon.
Please take time to read the protestors concerns and intentions, before viewing the photos before telling me this is not a display of a combination of sexual paraphilias.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgpj5y/pissed-off-trannies-ehrc-protest
Vice's tweet – and comments:
https://twitter.com/VICE/status/1567226215798276096?s=20&t=dLyCP9bomLnhI1ZEaFoSGw
Nothing more ridiculous than a bunch of blokes in frocks and masks pouring piss on themselves.
Hopefully a demonstration of "peak Trans" and it is all downhill from there.
Well it is a sign of alpha w-manliness to mark ones territory and let everyone know that a w-man was here. , and I as otherother / person /people/ folx/ non male/ non penis haver totally would have no issues with this 'w-man' pissing all over the toilets, changing rooms, into the pool, and elsewhere, after all that is what 'w-man' do. Right, pissing on the rights of people not them.
In saying that someone should advise this w-man to his water intake, cause that piss is brown and that can't healthy.
Farrar is a slimeball, exhibit #86459
https://twitter.com/nz_voter/status/1567606162937516032?s=20&t=gNCuGMcGV7LKfpCXQmY92w
I don't think this is an appropriate sentence for the crimes committed, despite the slur on government.
Can we just acknowledge that certain people have certain patterns of mendacious behaviour, and then discuss the issue of why we agree/disagree with the sentence?
For me, it is the knowledge of the impact of sexual assault on victims, that often isolates them at home for much longer than nine months, that provides dissatisfaction with nine months home detention. Incarceration that doesn't provide a solid attempt to change behaviour is also not the full answer.
Does NZ have any successful programmes running in our Justice and prison systems at the moment?
David Seymour thinks ankle bracelets are the solution
yeah, why not? Honestly, what would you do? What should be done?
Nothing?
Isn't it already being done? I would have thought a sentence of home detention includes an ankle bracelet.
Perhaps chemical castration? Why not surgical castration? Castrate all men in fact; we are rapists inside after all. s/
5 – 10 percent of all humans male – or female (sex based not gender based) are capable of horrendous crimes against other people. They rape, they kill, they torture, and they cause mayhem for others.
95 – 90% of all humans male or female (sex based not gender based) to not cause any harm to anyone but have a good chance of being made a victim by the minority.
Someone who at 16 years old has raped and assaulted 5 young girls (15 years old and girls as in human female child – sex based) should not be given home d. But should be sent to a. prison or b. a mental clinic until they are no longer a risk to society and have paid their debt to those that were given a life time sentence of living with the after math of having been raped.
But feel free to run around pretending/insinuating/stating that ALL men are rapists that should be chemically castrated or surgically castrated should they be found guilty of raping 4 girls aged 15 and assaulting another girl. Heck why don’t you write a nice letter to the nice people who set sentencing and outline your proposal to them. See how that would work out for you and report back to us.
For someone who loves to use sarcasm as a
weapontool you seem unable dealing with it when someone else reciprocates with it.Singapore has a very low crime rate. We should look at what they do different to us.
Speak Chinese?
As well as Malay and English. Three main languages there, much of the signage is in Malay, and most of the place names. It is after all a small island at the bottom of the Malaysian peninsula, and only a 1/2 hour drive across the causeway. 🙂
Had a 2 year posting there and learnt a bit of Malay. On a holiday trip back from Penang Island we asked the overland taxi driver at Butterworth to take us to the Cameron Highlands, All was going good but there was much discussion between the taxi drivers who had heard our request and then some hurried transition of our luggage from the initial taxi to another. When I asked what was going on, it was revealed that the first taxi driver thought I had asked to go to Thailand!
It was a ride I shall never forget. It helped to keep my eyes closed for most of the journey. Fortunately Allah was looking out for us and we arrived shaken but not stirred.
The Cameron Highlands has some of the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen, and they were everywhere.
FIFY
Most teens would wear them as a badge of honour. TikTok and Snapchat would be full of it.
Hardly a deterrent, or punishment.
Even Graham Lowe, who you wouldn’t call a bleeding heart wokester, thinks it’s a bad idea.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/09/new-zealand-rugby-league-great-sir-graham-lowe-criticises-act-s-idea-to-put-youth-offenders-who-commit-serious-crimes-in-ankle-bracelets.amp.html
Seymour is not someone I would consider able to provide solutions or considerations of worth on this issue.
In terms of solutions or informative discussion, there's little achieved by pointing out him acting true to character.
Was a facetious response to the question
It is a privilege not to have to interact with the criminal justice system and know nothing about the Corrections programmes
I wasn’t being disingenuous.
Looking more for the stats or data regarding the outcomes, rather than what you linked to.
Searching for statistics, it's easy to find stats on prevalence etc, but not so easy to find programmes with supporting data for perpetrators or victims.
Do you have any links for such?
There is no simple answer or we'd already be doing it.
IMHO a large proportion of offending stems from the intergenerational trauma of Maori displacement. And another component is the systemic fallout of predatory capitalism, trapping people in a cycle of deprivation. As well as other factors like mental health, literacy rates, addiction, abuse.
The Nordic model appears to be reasonably effective, but it relies upon a certain type of society, and political will.
To clarify the second para from above…
Left-wing governments are more likely to mitigate the worst inequality and actually invest in people over profit… so long term, vote Left to reduce crime.
National likes to talk about getting tough but their plans (harsher sentences, more violent cops) are not backed by evidence, they are all just photo ops and tend to backfire.
You are correct in this. Just looking for some form of hard data in terms of how successful this approach is.
And don't be so quick to label people privileged just because they have no interaction with the justice system.
In my closest circle of female friends, none have interacted with the justice department, one was physically abused by both parents, two had their virginity stolen via sexual assault. One when they were a small child.
It'd be great is some of that compassion and understanding on the left remained for those who are not politically identified as vulnerable minorities, who are injured and suffer nonetheless.
Sorry for the implication, I am also privileged to avoid the Courts etc. In the light of the horrific stats against women and girls (and the difficulty of adolescence), little wonder that some are desperate to avoid predators by identifying into another gender.
I agree that it's not easy to find data.
Here's a meta study from Canada – evaluating the recidivism rate of adolescent sexual offenders who have completed rehabilitation programmes, with those who dropped out, and those who never participated.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8548636/
Thanks, Belladonna.
Just aware there are many different programmes, and although they are often announced with great fanfare and promise, follow up information and data about attendees, costs, outcomes etc are hard to find.
There has been a follow up article with a response from the crown prosecutor, but even that is low on details regarding which programme the convicted rapist will be expected to attend (if indeed it is a specific sexual assault programme). Perhaps if those details were provided, and were able to be assessed as having a reasonable chance of success, people would be more accepting of the sentence.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/474427/why-prosecutor-didn-t-seek-prison-term-for-bay-of-plenty-teen-rapist
The question really is where is the government currently in regards to crime, assault, murder, sexual assault, theft, ramraids and so on and so forth.
Keeping non violent offenders out of prison and have them in home detention is laudable and should be used as much as possible. I am all in favor.
But a 16 year old raping 4 girls that is not normal teenage male behavior
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/teenager-jayden-meyer-sentenced-to-nine-months-home-detention-after-raping-four-15-year-old-girls/D6IWSUPAWWA7Q5TBPZ4BRLZRMQ/
I guess that non male human beings that are biological uterus/cervix/fallopian tubes and ovary havers need to understand the value society and our law / order / justice complex has for them vs rapists. Like none. No value, what so ever.
I realise your question is rhetorical but here ya go, some policy: labour.org.nz/justice
Perhaps the Covid lockdowns made everyone a little bit crazy
"Perhaps the Covid lockdowns made everyone a little bit crazy"
roblogic – I'm not sure what point you are making by posting this, in this context.
Can you elaborate?
Responding to Sabine's question about an overall increase in crime
A 16 year old raping 4 girls plus assaulting another one, should in fact be given a reward for his manliness and prowess. Anything else would just be too upsetting for the rapist. s/
That's not sarcasm, Sabine, that's unnecessarily triggering provocation, with no humorous or wry aspect whatsoever. Sarcasm should at least entertain, imo.
It's a wry analysis of the outcome for perpetrators and victims of sexual violence.
It's very difficult and distressing to get convictions.
Sentences of home detention agreed to by the crown prosecutor when as Sabine quotes above:
"A psychologist, who saw Meyer 30 times during the prosecution, found he had a medium risk of reoffending, and continues to minimize the effect of his crimes."
is not an indictment on the whole system, but may be indicative of a perspective that requires investigation. I think it does.
My answer is to the comment above on the Farrar tweet. It is not ment to be nice.
Farrar is Farrar and will do as Farrar did and has done since ever.
But to minimise the damage this young bloke did to the 5 girls in order to schtup a person with whom one disagrees one politically is despicable. Life long damage as i can assure you in no uncertain terms. My rapist is now dead and thanks god for that, and he raped me almost 50 years ago. And the damage is still there and it still hurts. Lifelong sentence for the victim and a nothing for the rapist. Now that is kindness.
And yes, where is the our government? the 'suicide' prevention government? the 'be kind' government when it comes to rape and sexual assault of girls/women? Oh they girls/women (sex based not gender based) are not marginalised and vulnerable enough? Are they even human?
What does it say about the so-called left that it can not ask where the justice is in this ruling. Justice for the girls. Justice for the community. Justice for the families of these girls?
And yes, that dude got exactly that what i wrote. A wee slap on the hand, after all they could not let that dude that has a medium risk of re-offending, and has shown no remorse be locked up for a few years. They are letting him go out again in a few month from his traumatising experience of home D and if he rapes again, oh well who could / would / should have known that, and did he not learn his lesson?
Sorry to hear that happened to you Sabine. You are absolutely right to be concerned about justice for the victims.
Peace
Susie Ferguson is a Taonga, pulling up Luxon in the middle of his Gish gallop
https://twitter.com/rugbyintel/status/1567300971885395968?s=20&t=gNCuGMcGV7LKfpCXQmY92w
Luxon gishes and gallops all over the course. His training is coming along well.
Yeah his punters will be pleased but he's not on Planet Key just yet.
Susie Ferguson has made calling Luxon on his bullshit a national sport. Unfortunately within the key MSM interviewers she is the only one playing at the moment.
"Repeat the Lies Luxon" knows people remember the meme. True or Not!!
(I am glad to see Ad doing some decent posts on the Government and making suggestions. Well done Ad.)
Suzy is great. she cuts to the chase!! She could have said "Where are you getting those figures from? They are wrong"
Now we need to build in a strategy to "call out" distortions and outright Lies.
Plus the Election has started.!!!!!
I have increased my regular donation to Labour by a third. I suggest every supporter give a small amount regularly, as then Labour can plan their campaign.
Say if you will provide a billboard spot, if you can do other tasks. If you don't want Luxon as our next Leader, start the fighting fund and planning.
I have said the exact same thing some time ago. that the warehousing of our poor in motels is nothing more then a hiding of a problem and a huge transfer of government funds to private businesses that run run down motels.
For the weekly cost of housing a desperate family in one of these hovels the government could have literally rented a house of the free market and saved some money.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lizzie-marvelly-motel-emergency-housing-vulnerable-treated-like-cash-cows-turning-rotorua-into-a-dumping-ground/O2OQEVQQJXF42I7N67PVN53EXA/
happy to see this now out in the open. I don't believe much will change, and those that recently have lost their properties rented or owned will themselves find that a run down motel unit is the best they will find for a long long time to come. But then the government pays what ever is asked, don't ask questions, just carry on. Let's keep moving. To where? Who cares.
Sabine the problem is old, in my lifetime I have seen building on the current scale once!! That was in the 70s. The number of houses is not enough, but the changes made mean apartment blocks are able to be built in all centers near transport. The solution is not magic, but did need central government change as Rotorua had 1500 consents over years!! They were mainly top end houses, not social houses.
Your suggestion of build to rent subsidised Government housing is practised in Australian States. Yes I agree that would help, but the government could not join an overheated market and make it worse. Now prices have begun to stabilise they have a chance to buy into a falling market to provide homes from failed airb&b landlords.
I guess we should just vote for the guy that will magically make all these problems disappear. By selling off state housing and ignoring all the people sleeping rough and celebrating a rock star economy and hoping the bottom feeders will just go away.
Or, we could acknowledge that there is a housing shortage and at the same time an unprecedented government response in facilitating 10,000+ new state houses in the last 5 years.
HUD NZ Housing dashboard
Despite media wailing, the Government is NOT "hiding the problem" FFS.
Minister Woods was in Rotorua just last week.
https://twitter.com/LabourMaoriNZ/status/1564084645238800384?s=20&t=gNCuGMcGV7LKfpCXQmY92w
Yes. one house – and these are a tiny fraction bigger then a tiny house has now found someone to live in.
the rest are still empty.
All three houses are up the road from us. The property was knocked down three years ago, stood empty for a bout a year and half and took a year and a half to be build. With that speed in the year 2300 we will have housed all the Motel Citizens of NZ. Drip Drip Drip some water on a hot stone.
Never mind the future climate refugees such as those that have lost their properties in the recent floods up and down the country.
I find it more productive to turn on the light rather than curse the darkness.
If you want to celebrate these three tiny houses on one section with three carparks and a rug of 'grass' behind the shed (they are about double garage sized houses) then go ahead and consider it success.
Again, i live not far from this success and i know how well they are build (lol) and how big they are – two tiny bedrooms, toilet/shower and a kitchen-living, and these houses will be rented to people with kids.
The only grace these houses have is that schools are in walking distance and hopefully some of the reserve that the Council wants to sell to private developpers for 'low income housing' will be preserved for the future poor to have a bit of an outdoor space, and the next supermarket is about 3 kms walking distance form these properties, if one does not have enough money for a bus. Town is about an hours walk away.
We initially thought that hese properties were for hte retired, and i would actully consider them perfect for that group of people. However pushing 3 – 5 people into a barely 45 sqm 'house' *3 i.e. 12 – 15 people plus a few cars on a section that used to have 1 Kainga Ora house on it will bring its own problems.
I understand the desperation. I watched Auckland during the N years, and now i get to watch Rotorua during the L years, and you know what, it is hard very hard to find a difference.
For what its worth, the whole of downtown Rotorua could be knocked down and rebuild. ITs either abandoned, or not earthquake save, empty shops everywhere. Now that would be something. Re-design the town centre to be pedestrian / cyclist friendly, ground floor shops and above those three floors of apartments. You would not need to re-develop, utilities would already be there, water/sewerage etc all at hand, and you would revive your town centre.
The country needs to re-think housing as a whole. Cost of build, rents, sizes 1 bdrm / studio to 5 bedrm, cheap monthly rents, next to shops, schools, medical centres etc etc etc.
That is not what we are doing. In this case, we build three very small houses on one section to house up to 15+ people in.
In fact it would have been better to build these properties up two stories. And i can see these houses be demolished in a few years to do exactly that.
Kainga Ora is already investing in all these things as well as industry support and community engagement.
https://kaingaora.govt.nz/developments-and-programmes/
Clint Smith gives us more deets on Rotovegas…
https://twitter.com/ClintVSmith/status/1566622559465918464?s=20&t=2wCFtarl8sHc5qbigcdLvA
Are you getting these talking points from talkback radio? I was talking to a mate a couple of days ago who was saying similar stuff about Rotovegas and asking "where is Jacinda?!!11!!"
She's overseas at the moment, so I guess it is time for the Nat's mouthpieces to moan that she isn't visiting their pet projects.
I don't think she's overseas….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-taking-buggy-ride-on-aucklands-44b-city-rail-link/2C6BUNNCFO5X2LZ3QEOIYKBE5U/
Dang, she was off to the UN just a few days ago
The government probably decided to use the motels because of the lockdowns and lack of tourists.
It's past time to move on
Otherwise make it easier for mobile homes to be located on sections (either for children of parents or parents of children).
Aesop said that a man is known by the company he keeps.
Now we all know where, and with whom, he stands.
"The meeting was hosted by Unify NZ, a local group that is aligned to a number of anti-mandate/anti-vax groups such as Voices for Freedom and Convoy 2022. The audience, as demonstrated during question time, was a mix of diehard NZ First supporters and right-wing conspiracy theorists."
https://www.localmatters.co.nz/mahurangi-news/audience-gets-its-moneys-worth-from-peters-rhetoric/?fbclid=IwAR3HRuD_ub_PqVfrvSTFTl20gQp-EmfY8m9NP8suB57NJfuW7xGwtDjqQk8
What is it about free school lunches that triggers right wingers so badly? The NZ Herald has revived its attacks on the school lunch programme. Is it the thought of some little brown kids getting a meal and maybe feeling happy and keen to learn – rather than knowing their place and pulling themselves up by their non-existent bootstraps? Is it the thought of working class parents saving maybe $25 a week per child to spend on other necessities? God knows – but it is a peculiarly intense example of their vileness.
All I saw was some spoilt kids complaining because they don't like kumara, and saying the menu was crap. They are lucky to have a choice.
It's not the first time NZ has had a school lunch programme. When I was a kid – admittedly a long time ago – our Mums used to take it in turns to 'do' the school lunches for those kids who regularly came to school with no lunch. We're talking about parents on very low wages who couldn’t afford them. No big deal. It was what you did back in the day. I presume each school had an allocation of money to keep the programme going.
Shoutout to Willie Lose.
Former rugby international and commentator Willie Los'e dies aged 55 – NZ Herald
He was second speaker at the Kelston Boys debating team back in the day, and it was always fun to go against the Kelston Girls team.
So Willie was pretty buff from all that First 15 Rugby gym training, and the topic was "That some things are best left to men". Good ground for a boys against the girls afternoon fun contest in the early 1980s.
You can get the tenor of the school by noting that Graham Henry was both Principal and Auckland Rugby Coach at the same time.
We oiled Willie up in coconut oil and he only wore a lavalava for that debate, so he could deliver Second Speaker with a bit of panache. He made his pecs talk to each other.
Sure went down well at the Kelston Girls auditorium.